Clark Technology Removes PFAS (Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) From Source Waste Streams

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group durable and stable chemicals which has been used for several decades and now are finding their way into the Nation’s drinking water stream via industrial discharge, compost piles, and specially landfill leachate. Landfill leachate is one of the most important and difficult-to-treat sources of PFAS which contribute to elevated levels of this material in surface and groundwater. Removing these substances from acquis environment is a global challenge to the industry and regulatory bodies.

In search of a means to prevent this from happening and safeguard Nation’s waters from being contaminated by these chemicals, Clark Technology LLC (Clark) has innovated the LeachBuster system, which removes all of these contaminants (over 24 species) from the waste streams such as landfill leachate thus eliminating them from drinking water supply sources.

Clark has installed several LeachBuster systems in the U.S. and around the world and, one in particular located in a landfill in Western Minnesota which has been running for over 4 years and has been removing these compounds from leachate using a 20,000-GPD system.

Clark has over 4 years’ worth of data which can be provided at a request. The followings are a sample set of data for a group of PFAS. Out 24 species tested about 15 species were present in one sample and 10 species were detected in the second sample. Depending on the temporal and geographical locations, different species appeared in the raw leachate stream.

 

^*PFNA: Perfluorononanoic acid PFDA: Perfluorodecanoic acid: PFDoA: Perfluorododecanoic acid, PFBS: Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid, PFHpS: Perfluoroheptanesulfonic Acid, PFOS: Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, FOSA: Perfluorooctanesulfonamide, PFHpA: Perfluoroheptanoic acid, PFOA: Perfluorooctanoic acid, PFHxS: Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid, PFBA: Perfluorobutanoic acid, PFPeA: Perfluoropentanoic acid, PFHxA: Perfluorohexanoic acid.

A second set of samples are also presented here from another site to indicate the ability of LeachBuster to remove PFAS from different leachate streams.

These samples were taken at after a major rain event and indicates a fewer species (10 out of 24 tested) are present in the raw leachate.

^*Acronyms are given in the previous table.

As it can be seen in both occasions and in several other occasions (not presented here), regardless of the initial values of PFAS in raw leachate, the levels in the treated leachate were all below 2 Parts per Trillion (PPT) or nano-grams per liter (ng/l) which is much less than the most stringent health risk limits (HRLs) set by any regulator which is >17 ng/l.

About Clark Technology
Clark Technology LLC is a technology development and Innovation Company which thrives is developing and implementing new and innovative technologies and procedures to assist its clients to achieve their sustainability goals via resource recovery and renewable energy. Amongst technologies which has intimated, developed, matured and implemented are LeachBuster and Waste-to-Energy.

About LeachBuster
LeachBuster is an innovative single pass graduated membrane filtration system which can treat almost any type of wastewater (organic or inorganic) and produce effluent with up to 13 different purity levels ranging from Ultrafiltration (UF) to Ultra-Pure (UP) (which is used in hospitals and semi-conductor industry) and every level in between including but not limited to nano-filtration and reverse osmosis. All of these are achieved without any pre-treatment, staging or backwashing etc. A totally enclosed, compact and fully automatic system reducing the odor and noise nuisance; space requirement, and constant operator assistance. This system is equally applicable to municipal, industrial and commercial wastewater streams as well as cleaning potable water for human consumption.

About The Inventor
Dr. Kazem Eradat Oskoui is a world renowned scientist with over 40 years of experience in innovating and implementing different technologies in various fields of environmental engineering, consulting and science to address some of the most challenging environmental remediation issues. His recent innovation and development of LeachBuster, which has addressed amongst other issues, the problem of PFAS and boron in highly contaminated wastewater streams such as landfill leachate is one of his notable achievements.